Ó Criomhthain, Tomás

Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, The, January, 2000 by ROBERT WELCH

Ó Criomhthain, Tomás, (1856–1937), author of An t Oileánach and other autobiographical writings; born on the Great Blasket Island off the Dingle Peninsula, the youngest of a large family, he was educated in English on an island school, and grew up amid conditions of poverty and hardship in a tiny community living in a village on the east side of the island facing Dunquin.

Considered delicate as a child, young Ó Criomhthain continued to be breastfed to the age of 4, but ultimately outlived all of his contemporaries. Married in 1878 to Máire Ní Chatháin, they went on to produce ten children. An uncle, Diarmuid, acted as a kind of mentor to the young Ó Criomhthain, though he was also a rakish partner in drinking bouts....

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